Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response, the most important part of which is his commitment to raise these issues. It is important he does so. While the earlier part of the Minister of State's contribution gave a nice overview of the plan and strategy seeks to achieve, for these families the strategy will fail unless we act now to ensure that this hotel is leased to Dublin City Council. The onus is on us to do that. NAMA is a State agency. The receiver was appointed by NAMA. That the receiver can demand vacant possession and families will have no choice but to vacate is a disgrace. This cannot be allowed to continue. I urge the Minister of State to contact NAMA this evening and encourage it to address this issue immediately. Some families have been told they have to leave the hotel today and others have been told they must do so by Saturday. We should be sending a clear message to those families to stay where they are, that this issue is going to be resolved and that the hotel will be leased to Dublin City Council. This will at least provide them with some form of stability for a while during which time they might be able to source alternative accommodation or it will give the new plan time to work so that such issues can be resolved for families.

I look forward to hearing from the Minister of State tomorrow. I hope the news will be positive. If NAMA fails to agree to lease this hotel, we should tell these families not to leave in any event. We need to put it up to NAMA. We cannot allow this to happen.

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